KU vs. Emporia St - Svi To Start
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@JayHawkFanToo so many are playing well! It’s a good thing.
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More platooning…
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Extremely balanced scoring for KU so far…
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@Crimsonorblue22 I think by conference play they’ll be ready to bring home #11.
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@brooksmd agree, I couldn’t pick 5 starters though. Not yet.
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@Crimsonorblue22 Me neither. Have a good time Friday nite and wanna hear ya yelling “Let’s go Jayhawks” from the rafters. GN
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My impression from following the play by play on the internet and not actually watching the game…
KU started 1-9 and then shot 5-9 from the 3. Big improvement.
Extremely balance scoring. 9 players scored between 9 and 13 points. surprisingly Svi was not one of them, consistency is going to be an issue with him
Fouls are a concern with the bigs. Mickelson 5, Lucas 4, Alexander 3…against Emporia State?
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@JayHawkFanToo fouls and in not to many minutes.
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I’ll add:
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Devonte was spectacular. Great defensive pressure, several steals, created an over and back, fed the ball exceptionally well, and made several nice shots.
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Our most electric player is Cliff. He instantly takes over the game when he’s in there. Not sure why we had to wait 10 minutes to see him, but when his number was finally called, he delivered.
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Swee was off, because I think we jinxed him. He must be a Kubuckets reader, because HEM suggested a possible 1-7 shooting night, and I think that’s exactly what he shot. Wish you would’ve said 8 for 8, HEM.
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I don’t think we saw an “A” game from Wayne or Perry by any means. We saw some special 2nd half moments from both, but I think their show begins Friday.
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With the $109 price tag for a pay per view-
I went with the audio play by play. Not a bad way to follow a cupcake game for free. Better than gamescast stats.
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@KUSTEVE you jinxed him!!!
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@Crimsonorblue22 I did my “baby shoes” good luck cry. I don’t know what happened. It always works.
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After my earlier grousing about non-telecast, I discovered that Full Court was running this contest on Dish 457. So, I can sleep peacefully after all. Bill Self has so many available combinations this season that winning basketball will certainly be a work in progress. Good to see Selden and Ellis get serious after 3 halves of lackluster numbers. Svi’s shooting was off tonight, but the kid is the real deal. His outlet pass with 2 1/2 minutes left in first half was splendid. He looks to become an impact player sooner than anticipated by many. Lucas, Mickelson and Alexander all looked formidable. A very active crew of big men. Point guard position looks to be much improved over a year ago, with Mason and Graham exhibiting some good stuff. Greene still quick to bounce into BIll Self’s toughening box, but he pops back off the bench to create some serious mayhem for defenders. Freethrow shooting very much improved tonight. Bill has made his point! I’d say that it will take awhile for this squad to gel and win smoothly; but by midFebruary they should be ready to make a run toward some titles. Athleticism abounds.
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@JayhawkRock78 said:
@globaljaybird Is that a new pup in your avatar?
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@JayhawkRock78 Yes that’s a rescued year old piss & vinegar boxer named Rascal. . Is A whole lotta dog for an old fart. Takes the BB outta my hand at 7 feet. Major jumper. Have a 6 ft fence around the house & front & rear cattle gates but still have to watch like a hawk, as in Jayhawk!. Pasture fence is only 42 " with one strand of barb so without the leash is not an option. Lotta work but unlike you know who, wakes up in the SAME MOOD every damn day." Sound familiar?! Thanks for noticing .
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@globaljaybird rascal is keeping you young!
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Slow start, but the second half showed us glimpses of this teams potential. Almost fell off my chair seeing pressure in the backcourt with traps. So happy to see improved ball pressure and steals. Individually, our perimeter players played much better “d”. They struggled on switching with the weave. This should improve with time. I was impressed with Lucas. Looked so much better than Mickelson. Mason and Graham looked great at the point in the 2nd half. At one point, we had 12 assists on 14 field goals in the second half. This group looks more like a team, than the last couple of years. Can’t wait until Friday. RCJH.
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@Crimsonorblue22 Is damn sure keeping me bruised, beat up & tired . But he has as good a life as he gives me . I have other things but I’m all he has so I give him my best. Wouldn’t have it any other way. Too flipping much seratonin in the brain-guess I must be just like him.
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@globaljaybird I’m so happy for your family!
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@jaybate-1.0 HA! Thats great stuff. Mr Appearance you are here by sentenced to a hereby unspecified amount of ass chewing in practice without parole!
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I was at the game last night. My first reaction was “blah.” Meaning, no one stood out. As Self said, little separation. The only real excitement was Alexander’s little run there where he had a few dunks.
Then it hit me. This is the type of team that may need that. Equal functioning. A couple other observations:
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I liked Graham penetrating and scoring near the end of the half. It was like ESU gave that to him. He took it, and hit the floater.
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Selden seemed to disappear a bit. I looked at the clock at appx. the 9:00 mark in the 2nd half and Selden has 5 points (I believe). Odd to me. This does not appear to be Selden’s team.
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Svi did the poor shooting routine. I would have like to have seen him drive the ball a couple of times. The Bobby Knight shot fake, and then a drive. He did get some open looks. He did move the ball quickly, the “don’t let it stick thing.” And he seemed to play good defense. We’ll see.
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I am concerned with our big men. Ok, maybe not concerned. Apprehensive may be the better term. I just want to see how they play against real competition. It seems like the only thing holding Alexander back right now is his knowledge of the system. That is the only thing. If we’re playing as a big minutes back up, his lack of knowledge is not a critical impediment. Thus he should start. But if he gets low minutes, of course, we’ll know it is a major problem. I do want to see how Lucas does vs. the better competition, because right now, he looks smooth, confident, and highly serviceable. Mickelson is hard to figure out.
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Greene/Oubre - I’m not sure what I want here. But I want more. Greene seemed active, Oubre didn’t to me … or at least he didn’t stand out. They both were kind milk-toast to me.
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Activity - I did like the trapping and increased pressure. Missed on some backside coverage, but mixing this in is exactly what the doctor ordered.
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No Small Four - Again, we didn’t see Oubre, Greene, Selden, or Svi at the 4. Maybe it’s being held in secret to surprise UK. Doubtful.
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Lineup - Just my opinion. I’d start Mason, Graham, Selden, Ellis, and Alexander. Svi would be my first perimeter sub, then Greene – the guy playing the best gets more minutes for now. Traylor and Lucas as post subs. Oubre and Mickelson riding the pine. All this for now. I could see Self going with Greene over Svi because of experience, and the big stage in the Champions classic.
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Ellis - One last thing. I would not hesitate to sit Ellis on the bench for his overall passivity and poor play on defense. He is just a poor defensive player. No dressing that up. Last night, it made me shake my head. Kind of frustrating. It is odd, but Ellis is my biggest worry right now. Mainly because we have our wagon hitched to his lead.
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“@drgnslayr depends on match ups, presses, defensive schemes etc. I’d love to see a 4 guard lineup w/Mari at the 5, pressing and running the floor.”
I like that idea, too!
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As others have already pointed out, the second was vastly different from the first, though there were some good things that happened in the first half.
I am excited to see good perimeter defense. Ku had 11 steals last night. I don’t think they got anywhere close to that last year. Graham so far is playing the type of pesky defense like Chalmers and Robinson.
Overall, there were more positives than negatives. Let’s hope the team from the second half shows up on Friday and against Kentucky.
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Any comments on allowing offensive rebounds? By following the play by play it looked like ESU was getting rebounds after missed free throws, something you just cannot allow, otherwise we will get owned by the UK bigs.
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@JayHawkFanToo I missed that!
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“Overall, there were more positives than negatives.”
It didn’t bother me too much that we came out slow in the first half. That points to the fact that their practice sessions are tough with learning concepts. It was clear guys were thinking too much. They seemed a lot more relaxed and focused in the second half.
It is always a good sign when a team plays the second half better than the first. It shows they can absorb the halftime coaching and come out a different team.
Glad to see Perry start to assert himself. Lots of good things… Devonte starting to go forward. And Frank seems to be a constant plus now (in both exhibition games).
Most of our bigs committed lots of fouls, they better work on that!
Friday will be a step up in competition. I get the feeling we need to be pushed harder in order to really see where these guys are. That might take the UK game to expose.
Svi is clearly an alpha-dog when it comes to getting his shots up. He wasn’t shy even after missing many. I’m sure he will have streaks this year, and maybe he’ll get sidelined down the stretch of close games if he isn’t hot, because he seems like he’ll up it even if he missed his first 10+ shots!
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Thx Lulu, always great to hear from you.
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Be patient. The press will be unfurled intermittently in due time.
Self could not very well run the press against friendly D-II programs in state, when we were already pounding them like Number 2 nails into balsa wood.
Self is doing the Full Nimitz here with Alexander and Oubre. Unless Oubre is seriously knee hobbled, Self is laying down a big, long, two game smoke screen here.
Self was determined not to give UCSB any tape to study.
Svi, however, was a huge failure in his tactics. It was the right thing to do to get him out on the floor and shooting a bunch of treys. The team basically has no three point shooting without him. Greene is punchy. All that talk about him being okay is hooey. Greene is better, but no one fully gets over a dinger that forces them to sit out in the first place, in this short of time. And, of course, our other trey shooter is down at the Round House, because cooler heads did not prevail, as they most assuredly should have. Letting CF go is going to go down as one of the few serious goofs in Self KU tenure, unless Svi and Greene become anything less than excellent protectors and stellar shooters after a month into the regular season. Svi and Greene are pop tart machines currently. So: overtime Self brings them in, whether they are hitting, or not, they cost you two possessions at least in Pillsburys. CF could have gotten a trey or two down, as he did down the stretch last season, without the gift pastries. But such was not to be, because apparently CF wanted to play PG and Self wanted him to play anywhere but there.
But back to pressing.
KU will have to press. They have no offensive rebounding. They have no inside presence. They have no trey game. Against big teams, they will run a defensive rebounding deficit.
Only pressing can give them untraceable bailouts. I hereby declare that their press be named the Federal Reserve Press.
Wooden understood that zone pressing and long balling is the ONLY way for a short team to stay on the floor as the competition gets good.
But Self had to withhold showing press before the UCSB game. He didn’t dare tip off anything to UCSB. UCSB is probably the most important game of the pre-conference season. A loss to UCSB would start them off 0-2 and by the third game the opposing coaches will have enough tape to scheme against Mason and Selden and Ellis. And when the scheming starts, those three will have 2-3 straight sub par performances trying to adapt to the scheming. That 2-3 game stretch will coincide with opponents realizing KU is a 35% trey shooting team; that realization will mean the opponents will be packing the paint, and standing on the trey stripe. They will not guard one foot beyond the trey stripe unless KU makes 2-3 in a row. This situation means that KU could easily get upset by a cupcake or two and enter mid December .500. The team’s confidence might never recover from that.
So: Self has to bank everything on beating UCSB in Lawrence. I don’t know if he will amp the team or not, but he will surely send them out with every wrinkle he thinks they will need to survive UCSB’s big man. They will be attacking him every possession to try to get him fouled up ASAP. If the UCSB big man avoids getting fouled up, then it will be a very long game. And it would be at that point that the press would be implemented.
Best case scenario for UCSB, is Svi comes back and shoots 4-6 from trey and UCSB’s center gets fouled up early. Anything less and I expect Self really exhorting and prowling the sidelines working the refs as hard as if it were a Madness game.
KU M-U-S-T B-E-A-T U-C-S-B!!!
A moral victory is not enough.
All hands have to go to battle stations now.
No matter how many injuries have to be taken, no matter how much damage is suffered, this is the decisive battle before the big show down in Indy.
This is Coral Sea.
Lose this, and there is no chance in Indy.
Lose this and it could take two months just to recover.
Win it and whatever happens at Indy can be taken in our stride and turned to our advantage.
This team is shortly to find out what it is like to fight at a disadvantage.
Out of such circumstances come the turning points of history in any organization in any field of any activity. When you are out gunned from the beginning, and the weapons you need to even fight even up are being developed, and you are buying time for your that development, it all comes down to the character of the guys that have already been there. Ellis, Selden, Mason are the bulwarks of the next few weeks, but almost certainly either Lucas, or Mickelson, will have to rise to the occasion, because Alexander will have us and downs. At times like this, character is all you have to get an edge. This is when the Marine Corp training comes into play. No plan will survive initial engagement. KU isn’t better than anyone right now. KU has to want it more, and be harder, and tougher, until they can be better.
This is when you want guys that want to survive more than the ordinary person.
And whatever axis you play on, it is character alone that counts.
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@HighEliteMajor I don’t think Wayne or Perry tried very hard. When they did try, they scored at will. I still think this is Wayne’s team, imo.
@DinarHawk I loved the perimeter pressure. Devonte and Frank looked very good. Devonte is going to be a big star for us sometime in the next 4 years.
@jaybate-1.0 I don’t want to say our team wasn’t trying very hard, but I think they weren’t trying very hard. My conclusion is there is no definitive conclusions to be drawn yet. Are we weak in the middle? I don’t believe we are weak. I think we’ll prove that Friday night.
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Totally agree that exhibitions do not tell you anything about how hard and how explosive this short team can play.
But they tell us how short and slight we are inside, unless Alexander and Lucas are in.
And how deep Self is pushing Mickelson down the depth chart, which is to say clean up minutes in an exhibition game.
And what percentage we shoot near open look, poorly guarded treys against defenders that are inferior athletes. In the mid 30s.
And how we offensive rebound, against inferior athletes.
I realize we would do better, if we tried hard, and that we beat the piss out of ESU as it was.
But how does a D-I team not get one offensive rebound against a D-II team?
KU is going to look like a rocket shot out of a bazooka against UCSB, compared to their dead leg game performances against Washburn and ESU.
And UCSB may be daunted by the tradition and the time zone changes.
But UCSB is a legitimate mid-major with an experienced draft choice in the post. If KU throttles UCSB, then we have something here and my hand wringing will shift to trying to understand again what it is we have and how Self has pulled out another rabbit.
But it looks dicey to me right now.
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First Half
Jamari - 11 minutes
Alexander - 6 minutes
Lucas - 7 minutes
Mickelson - 8 minutes
Second Half
Jamari - 7 minutes
Alexander - 6 minutes
Lucas - 5 minutes
Mickelson - 6 minutes
How exactly is that pushing Mickelson down the depth chart? Just my opinion but numbers indicate that all bigs were given just about the same playing time and they all score just about the same as well.
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Mickelson …Final appx 4 min of Micks’ total in 2nd half were with the walk ons. Only Bill knows if those were quality min or not.
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@jaybate-1.0 "But they tell us how short and slight we are inside, unless Alexander and Lucas are in."
I have a solution: LEAVE THEM IN!!!
LOLOLOL…
